LEAVES Website for March-April 2008 Issue

 

 

Excerpted from "Leaflets" column

 

 

    Easter is very early this year, but there is still time to devote to your Lenten sacrifices. If you've strayed from your initial commitment, recommit to being faithful for the remaining time during Lent. When you feel tempted or weak, call to mind the sufferings Jesus endured for us.

 

     Jesus was God. Jesus was sinless. Yet He took upon Himself the burden of our sins and endured unspeakable pain. He did this out of love for us.

 

   We live in a world that tells us that not only is pain of any kind unnecessary, but so is any kind of inconvenience. Why not offer up little inconveniences on behalf of those in real pain? There are many ways to do this that fit within our already busy lifestyles.

 

     Instead of being annoyed at not finding a parking spot up close to the store, spend the extra moments it takes to walk in praying for the young widow from your neighborhood. Pray that God's presence will support and sustain her in the midst of her grief and that her husband rest in peace.

 

     Keep a rosary in your vehicle so that the next time you get stuck in traffic you can pray a decade or two for the cancer victim you heard about at work. Your delay will prove to be a real blessing to someone in need. You might also keep a rosary on tape or CD in the car to use both in traffic and on long commutes.

 

     Times you are kept waiting at doctors' offices or when picking up children from basketball, soccer, baseball or dance can become fruitful moments of meditation on the Our Father or some other prayer. You may even try to memorize some prayers during this time and offer them for the couple that just miscarried their baby.

 

     Instead of paying the higher price for a favorite snack, choose something less expensive, and after a few weeks donate the money to a local soup kitchen or food pantry. Do you stop for latte every day? Skip a day or two each week. Drive by the coffee shop and, instead of stopping, pray for those who are hungry.

 

     If you get assigned an unpleasant task at work, do it with a light heart and a prayer for those who are unemployed. Keep a little prayer book in your desk, workstation, pocket or lunch bag. At the least, copy a couple prayers onto a piece of paper to keep in your wallet. Pray that those who work in sinful industries, such as abortion clinics, adult venues or drug dealing, will have a change of heart and stop what they are doing.

 

     Rather than be upset that your elderly aunt said something unkind, pray for her to find the peace that seems to elude her. Then pray for all those who are alone or unhappy and for all families that are fractured or uncaring.

 

    Think of other ways to turn an inconvenience into an opportunity to do something worthwhile for others. Start doing them for Lent. At Easter consider continuing them until Pentecost and maybe beyond.

 

May God grant you abundant blessings always - Father Thomas Heier, C.M.M.

 

 

 

Excerpted from "Our Family Album"

 

 

St. Therese Helps Family

Grow through Pain

 

    When reading the Jul-Aug issue of LEAVES, I was struck by the love of Therese Neumann for our souls. Her bleeding must have been the result and outpouring of tremendous tenderness.

 

    Therese of Lisieux, also known as St. Therese the Little Flower, also has tremendous tenderness for us. In fact she was instrumental in my husband and I buying a trailer home a year ago on Rose Lane.

 

    St. Therese has watched over us powerfully as my husband and I had to deal with the fact that there were three crack houses on our small block. We were burglarized twice in March of 2007, and even though we were heartsick at our poverty, St. Therese looked on us with God's mercy.

 

    My husband found employment, after being out of work for 16 years. It came at a time when we felt so desperate, having lost personal belongings valuing $1,000 to the burglars. My husband loves his job and he loves his co-workers and bosses. His pay is good, too. It is balanced by his disability check and we slowly are making ends meet.

 

    St. Therese seems to be enabling us to grow through our pain, so that we will be more compassionate human beings, turning to others with the tender mercies of Our Lord. Perhaps we will always be low-income, but we are becoming rich in sharing God's real love. We are all brothers and sisters on this earth, and we have to prepare for eternal life. We are all learning lessons every day and should help one another.

 

    No harm came to Ronnie or me from the burglaries. Therese had spread her mantle over us. We do not repay evil to the evildoers. We pray every moment for protection when we leave home. We are prosecuting and hope that two of the burglars receive strict correction for their crimes. God has seen to it that two of the three crack houses have been shut down, and in His time the third one is slowly closing. Perhaps someday Rose Lane will be renewed.

 

    Jesus be praised, in His saints and in His faithful children - M.M.

 

 

 

Novena Finished and

Kitchen Cupboards Too

 

    Several years ago a friend was sharing her hurts with me concerning her kitchen cupboards. Her husband had said that he could build the cupboards rather than hiring someone to make them. He proceeded to take the existing cupboards out of her very small kitchen. The contents of the cupboards were packed into boxes and sat on the kitchen floor.

 

    Her husband got so far as to build the new cupboards, but then came to a stop and never could find the time to finish the job.

 

    For over a year my friend worked around and out of those boxes, making meals for her husband and four children. She was near tears sharing that, after this length of time and her husband not getting around to finishing the project, she just could not emotionally handle cooking and making meals for her family any longer with having to work out of and trip over the boxes.

 

    My heart ached for her. After she left my home, the thought came to me to pray a St. Theresa novena for her and this undone, year-old project. In fact, it had been this same dear lady who had told me about the novena and gave me a copy. I prayed the novena and forgot about it.

 

    One afternoon my husband came home with a single rose for me. Some days later this dear lady called me all full of joy and said, "You will not believe this. Jim up and finished my cupboards!"

 

    I shared her joy. My heart sang because I realized that the work of St. Theresa got those kitchen cupboards finished. Share the novena! - P.C.

 

 

St. Anthony Answers

My Prayer

 

    About seven months ago I lost my silver earring. I thought I lost it in church and kept praying to St. Anthony to help find it. Never did I find it, but on Mother's Day my grandson was visiting, and he came to me and asked if the item in his hand was mine.

 

    Lo and behold, there was the lost earring. I never did lose it in church, but at home. It was found under my bureau. Amazing! Thank you, St. Anthony! - O.MacL.

 

 

 

The Tremendous

Power of Prayers

 

    My sister-in-law's daughter had invited two other children to spend the night with her two kids. It was a Monday evening. Two of the children were sitting at the kitchen table doing some last minute homework to turn in on Tuesday. Their seven-year-old was fast asleep next to his mother who was bone-tired from her busy day at work. As mother and child slept peacefully in bed, her four-year-old vied for a place at the table, hoping to join the two oldest still hard at work.

 

    As the night wore on, the two older children at table grew tired. They decided to take a short nap. With books closed and heads down, soon they were fast asleep. This left the youngest still wide-awake. Then the worst happened. The carbon monoxide (CO) detector alarm sounded! Their apartment was rapidly filling up with carbon monoxide, that invisible, odorless, killing gas!

 

    Hearing the alarm, the child ran to the bed and started shaking his older brother, who in turn roused his mother from sleep, only to notice one of the sleeping children unconscious and foaming at the mouth. The child was near death. The children's mother quickly led her family from the gas-filled apartment carrying the unconscious child in her arms. Once safely outside, she dialed 911 and waited for the paramedics.

 

    For two tense hours the medical professionals worked at reviving the unconscious child and her mother who had passed out once her family was outside away from the noxious gas. Another hour passed before they managed to revive the stricken mother and child.

 

   The situation was still desperate. Both mother and child were again rapidly losing consciousness. Realizing that they were fighting a losing battle, they hustled the entire family off to the hospital for further treatment.

 

    The emergency room staff revived them. They tested them for traces of carbon monoxide and ambulanced them to another hospital where they were placed in the decompression chamber. There they remained for the next four or five hours until every tiny trace of the deadly gas was gone from their bodies. Then they were released.

 

    How does this story relate to the power of prayer? Every day my brother and I say special prayers to our guardian angels to protect our families. On the day of the accident I was going to skip Mass, but something inside of me strongly urged me to attend. I was tired, but forced myself to attend Mass that afternoon before the accident. What if my brother and I didn't pray for our families and friends that day? Would the outcome have been different? We believe our prayers made the difference - Fred C. Wilson III.




 

Excerpted from Father Engelmar Testimonies

 

A novena to Father Engelmar Unzeitig, C.M.M. is now available. We will send a copy of the novena free to whoever request it. Send your request with a stamped (postage for one ounce, currently 41 cents), self-addressed envelope to us at:

LEAVES

P.O. Box 87

Dearborn, MI 48121-0087

 

 

I have been praying serious novenas to Fr. Engelmar every day for five years since I read the history of his many accomplishments. In addition, I have convinced others to pray to him too. I want everyone to know that my prayers to him have been instrumental for healing many members of our family. My grandson Mark had cancer of his throat. Both of my granddaughters had thyroid cancer and my son-in-law Frank had prostrate cancer. All of them have had successful recoveries thanks to Fr. Engelmar. My daughter had a serious shoulder injury and finger surgery and she too has recovered.

 I am 98 years old and his prayers have kept me in good health. I had my own home for over 50 years. It was time to sell and I prayed that this would happen. My prayers were answered by Fr. Engelmar. Without him to hear and answer my many other prayers, I would be lost - Louise Dagh.

+ + +

     I was making the novena in honor of Fr. Engelmar for my son-in-law as he and others had been on strike at the iron-ore company for almost two months. I finished the novena on Tuesday and my daughter phoned Wednesday to tell me it was over. I could have made the novena sooner, but I was waiting for my daughter to ask me to pray, but she didn't, so once they were saying they might have to move, I thought I had better get praying. I really feel it's the prayers that did it.

 

   Last Saturday morning I went to church to pray for an hour for that intention along with other intentions and it was different. I even cried, and to me it's a sign that the prayers are going to be answered. I read in LEAVES magazine about all the people whose prayers have been answered through the intercession of Fr. Engelmar.

 

    I've been praying for years that our three children would come back to the Catholic Church. All of them married non-Catholics. The middle one and his wife had a child four months ago and had him baptized in the Catholic Church and said they would bring up their children Catholic, and when my husband asked him if he'd be going back to church, he said he would. I hope the others will do the same. Please pray it will happen - Mrs. E.S.

 

+ + +

 

    I thank Fr. Engelmar, Ss. Theresa, Jude, Anthony, Lady of Lourdes, Lady of the Snows for my prayers being answered that my medical test results be okay. I also ask for prayers for my daughter in-law who had breast cancer a year ago that now has gone into her lung. She is undergoing treatment again - E.H.

 

+ + +

 

    After praying the novena to Fr. Engelmar for several months, I feel that the pain has eased up a lot in my back and side. I would like my donation of thanksgiving to be used wherever help in needed - G.M.

 

 

 

No Greater Love

 

When I think of You, dear Lord,

On a cross covered with blood,

My heart seems then to stop,

My tears are like a rushing flood.

 

As I look upon Your broken body,

I wonder, Was that the only way?

You chose to die for all of us,

Us creatures now and yesterday.

 

Dear Lord, I feel so helpless.

How awesome it is to realize

How great Your love must be that

For mankind God suffers and dies!

          - By Bernice Laux

 

 

 

My Reward

 

I live to love,

And love is my reward

To give to all

Who find life rather hard.

 

And should there be

One thing I'd wish for more,

It would be

To love more than I loved before.

By Phyllis Lyle

 

 

 

I'm a New Creation

 

The article, "The Visit," by Catherine M. Kilroy (Nov-Dec LEAVES) was so very, very good. It brought more meaning to me about that event in Mary's life. I then read "You Can Be A New Creation" by Rick Hermann. It is my life! I was born a Catholic, some Catholic education. My faith started to waver in my 20s. I got married and I left my religion completely a few years later.

 

          I now have entered the decade of my retirement. It is also the decade my faith will grow immensely. Twenty months ago I came back to my religion I missed so much. I am definitely a new creation. The last 30-35 years have not been good. Now I look at things with a better view: through the eyes of God. I cannot stop doing things: worshipping, learning, teaching or giving - Judy DeJean.

 

+ + +

 

Coming Back

By Judy DeJean

 

You have attached Yourself to me

And I cannot escape.

You have taken over my spirit

And gave me a brand new shape.

 

No more anger, no more fear;

You have filled me with peace,

With love, with joy.

Your caring does not cease.

 

My past has faded away;

A light has been turned on.

You are with me to the very end

Until the Son makes a new dawn.